Against the Storm (radio program) explained

Show Name:Against the Storm
Format:Daytime Serial, Drama
Runtime:15 min
Country:USA
Language:English
Syndicates:NBC Red,
MBS,
ABC
Starring:Gertrude Warner, Arnold Moss, Roger DeKoven, Joan Alexander
Creator:Sandra Michael
Director:Axel Gruenberg
Rec Location:New York, NY
First Aired:1939
Last Aired:1952
Num Series:3
Audio Format:Mono
Opentheme:The Song of Bernadette
Othertheme:Ich Liebe Dich
Sponsor:Ivory, Philip Morris
Podcast:Stream from Archive.org

Against the Storm is a radio daytime drama which had three separate runs over a 13-year period; the initial run was on the NBC Red Network from October 16, 1939, to December 25, 1942, with revivals of the series on Mutual from April 25 to October 21, 1949, and ABC from October 1, 1951, to June 27, 1952. Created and written by Sandra Michael, the drama was the only daytime radio serial to ever win a Peabody Award, for "Outstanding Entertainment in Drama"[1] in 1941.[2] [3]

The program pivoted around the activities of Professor Jason McKinley Allen (Roger DeKoven, who starred in all three runs), his wife, daughters and friends. Allen, who lived in Hawthorne, Connecticut, at Deep Pool Farm, taught classes at the fictional Harper University.

With Allen an outspoken pacifist, war resistance and the dangers of fascism were underlying themes,[3] and his position as a professor made it possible for Sandra Michael to incorporate literature and poetry readings into her storylines. In one memorable episode, a shortwave broadcast from England enabled real-life Poet Laureate John Masefield to speak in Allen's fictional classroom.[4]

Axel Gruenberg directed Sandra Michael's scripts. The show's theme music was by Alfred Newman, taken from his score for The Song of Bernadette.

Variety praised a 1941 episode about a girl refugee seeing the skyscrapers of Manhattan as "one of the most distinguished and stirring broadcasts in the history of commercial daytime radio."

The serial's title was taken from King Lear: "... disconnect in watching Lear rage against the storm in a sun-drenched redwood... His rage against the storm and decline into madness are laced with lightning..."

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Winner, 1941: 'Against the Storm' for Outstanding Entertainment in Drama. Peabody: Stories That Matter. 5 August 2016.
  2. Book: Dunning, John . On the Air: the Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio . 7 May 1998 . 978-0-19-507678-3 . 16–17 . Oxford University Press . 2010-03-01.
  3. Soapland III – Sculptors in Ivory . The New Yorker . 12 June 1948 . James . Thurber . 48–58. 11 July 2012.
  4. Web site: Radio: Against the Claptrap. https://web.archive.org/web/20071114124253/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,851424,00.html. dead. November 14, 2007. November 10, 1941. 1 March 2010. Time.